STOP10 Mar 2017: 'Hooped on You' by Butterworks

A Singaporean love story that will break your heart before putting it all together again, Hooped On You is a mini movie released on YouTube recently. Released by Butterworks, a Digital Content Producer, in collaboration with mm2 Entertainment, the film was made in celebration of the channel’s second anniversary as well as do what they do best – share a story with their viewers.

This particular mini movie follows two main characters, Jia Min and Wei Yang as their lives start to intertwine with one another. Through the girls working at a bubble tea shop that the basketball boys visit, feelings start to brew and drama unravels as life happens. Is it possible for romance or is that just asking for further trouble?

The storyline is simple to follow and has its fair share of humour to counter the emotionally charged scenes. Even though there seems to be many subplots or elements abruptly introduced that leaves certain gaps in story-telling, the viewer can easily suspend his/her imagination to just go with the flow. With that being said, perhaps the mini movie might need to run longer to accommodate all the ideas introduced or be more selective about what actually goes into the film.

Being their first mini movie that runs for 65 minutes, it is quite a commendable feat in terms of script, shooting and editing. Watchable and completely heart-warming, Hooped On You proves that the channel has plenty of potential and surprises up their sleeve.

We spoke to one of the founders of Butterworks, Lun, to learn more about their YouTube channel and of course, stories behind the making of Hooped on You.

How did Butterworks come about as a YouTube channel?Previously, Rachel and I (Lun) joined several short film competitions like Cathay Motion Picture Awards and ciNE65 and we won some awards. People around us came to us and encouraged us to produce more short films as they wanted more. We gathered our 8 good friends who love filmmaking and inspiring people just as much as we do, and formed Butterworks.

What more can be done to grow the Singapore YouTube community, in your opinion?

As long as everyone tries his/her best in whatever they do, there will come a day when all efforts will be paid off.

What inspires the making of your mini movies?

As a team, we like to explore new challenges and pushing ourselves beyond our limits.

Has your work evolved from your first movie to the most recent Hooped on You? How so?

Yes definitely. Our shoot hours increased from 100 hours to 150 hours. In all aspects of filmmaking, the workload doubled as we took that leap from a 30 mins film to a 60 mins film. We are very humbled that this mini movie has received great audience responses.

Tell us more about how the idea came about - the creation of script, casting of actors, etc.

We, the 90s generation, love the classic drama, MVP 情人. Hence, we decided to do a throwback to the topic "篮球 Basketball" combined with the modern and relatable drink "泡泡茶 Bubble Tea"

This film revolves around the message of "looking beyond what you can see" and we hope this message will inspire people to not rely on their first impressions or judge people based on what they have done. Instead, they should take a step further to understand what are the intentions behind those actions because sometimes, people do the wrong things for the right reasons.

This movie has plenty of support from brands, which is great. How difficult is it to garner such support and does it play a huge role in the budgeting of the film?

It definitely helped us. We are very thankful for the amount of faith these brands and partners have in us and our visions for the film.

What was the most challenging part of filming Hooped on You, and how was it overcome?

It is easy for a freelancer to fork out 3 - 4 months of commitment, but for our team members to squeeze out their time and energy for this project amongst their busy schedule filled with studies, homework & work, was the greatest challenge for Hooped On You.

Because of this hectic filming period, most of us fell sick. But as good friends, we pushed each other to try more than our best, and with one steady step at a time together as a team, we finally reached the finish line.

What other works do you plan to explore in the future?

We will continue to push ourselves. I guess we are "hooped on" new challenges. Haha.

Written by Dawn TeoFinally, here is the piece-de-resistance, the actual movie itself. Get your popcorn ready!For the full list of March 2017's 10 films under STOP10, click here.